Chapter Sixty-Eight - Do Not The Princess

"Saint-Jérôme is a suburban city located about 45 kilometres northwest of Montreal on the Rivière du Nord. It is part of the North Shore sector of Greater Montreal. It is a gateway to the Laurentian Mountains and its resorts via the Autoroute des Laurentides."

--Wikimedia Foundation "Saint-Jérôme", November 2023

"Saint-Jérome is a suburban city located about 60 kilometres northwest of New Montreal on the Rivière du Nord. It is part of the North Shore Defence sector of the New Montreal Anti-Antithesis Pact. It is a gateway to the Laurentian Mountains and its resorts via the Pepsicola Highway."

--Wikimedia Corporation "Saint-Jérome", November 2043

***

We rolled into Saint-Jérome with a lot more fanfare than I expected.

In my mind, we were about to cruise into a city that had been fucked up. Sure, we were playing the roles of big damn heroes, but it didn't mean I expected the locals to give much of a shit.

Instead, we rolled into the city only to be greeted by a crowd swarming on a bridge above the exterior wall of the city. Some thousand-odd people, waving banners and flags and cheering the army's convoy as we rumbled in.

Crackshot waved at the people above as the mobile base rumbled past and was promptly nailed in the face by someone's panties.

"We're a lot more popular than I expected," I said as I watched it all from within the base. We had access to all of the cameras on the armoured vehicles, and some drones hovering above. It gave a good view of things.

"This city," General Thibodeau said. "Was almost certainly going to be condemned if we weren't able to approach. The city itself doesn't have the pull or money to encourage a large enough PMC presence, not with New Montreal so close. There aren't enough large corporate interests in the region for them to want to make a difference either. This is just a peaceful little city, with no true worth beyond being a place with a few hundred thousand consumers."

"What would have happened, then?" I asked.

"The city's citizens would be told to evacuate further, to New Montreal itself."

I blinked. "It took us two days to get here. I mean, we're moving at a snail's pace, someone driving straight could make it in a few hours, but... wait, how far is New Montreal from here? Like, the outermost wall?"

"Sixty kilometres," the general said.

I stared. "You, uh, mean sixty... thousand? Or you forgot a zero?"

He frowned in turn. "No? It's sixty kilometres to the south of here."

I turned to the holotank, then took control of it and zoomed out. I could see the place where the army had stopped for the night, and the route back, and... yup, that was 60 whole kilometres. "How in the fuck did this take us two days?"

"The first day was mostly getting things organised," Gomorrah said. "I wouldn't count today as a second day, it's not even noon yet."

"What kind of speed are we moving at?" I asked.

"We average about five kilometres an hour," the general said.

"That's walking speed!" I said. "There can't have been traffic, we have tanks!"

The general shrugged. "We're moving at the same pace as our slowest units. Some of our heavy armoured vehicles move at a snail's pace."

I couldn't wrap my head around it. Gomorrah reached over and patted me on the back. "This is the speed in which armies work," she said.

"It's so slow," I said.

"Miss Stray Cat likes going fast, then?" Princess asked.

I felt my spine straightening. God, that girl was rubbing me the wrong way. She was smiling, all teeth, and it was creeping me right out. "Let's get ready to hop out," I said. "Gomorrah, want to take, ah, Princess and Hedgehog and take the west flank? I'll go out with Crackshot and Knight, we'll slip around the east. Tankette can stay with the armoured division?"

The last was aimed at the general who nodded. "Certainly. I'm positive the tankers will take a liking to her. Hopefully not too much of one."

I had no idea what he meant by that, and I wasn't sure I wanted to know. "Right," I said. We were crossing the commercial part of the city, and the drone above was picking out some of the parking-lots-turned-refugee-camps that the general had mentioned earlier.

Princess and Knight were in the middle of a deep, hushed discussion. From the looks of it, my plan to split them up wasn't going so well. It ended when Princess frowned, grabbed Knight by the gauntlet, and tugged her towards me. "Miss Stray Cat," she said, this time with none of the weirdness.

"Yeah?" I asked.

She took a deep breath. "I'll let you borrow my sister," she said. "But only if you promise to keep her safe."

"I'm the one supposed to keep you safe," Knight said.

"I'll be fine," Princess replied. "I'll be with Miss Gomorrah. She's scary-strong. And Mister Hedgehog seems like he knows what he's doing too."

I stared between the two, then nodded. "I can keep Knight safe," I said. "Do you fight at all, Knight?"

"I can manage," Knight said. She sounded rather petulant. "I'm good at keeping Tiff--Princess safe. It's my job."

"Alright," I said. "Look, if you two don't want to be separated, we can work something out. I don't want to be a bitch here. If you're used to being together, then that's fine."

"You usually work with Miss Gomorrah, and you're splitting up now," Princess pointed out. "It's fine. I think we should learn how to handle ourselves when we are apart."

I hesitated, but she did seem certain enough. "Alright," I said. The mobile base came to a slow, steady stop, and I noticed the general looking at his table out of the corner of my eye.

"We're stopping here to unload troops. The base will be staying here, as part of the defensive cordon for the civilians and to act as a fall-back. Good luck out there, samurai."

With that said, we filed out of the base. Gomorrah's Fury was waiting outside, which was handy for her, since she wasn't carrying all of her gear in the base. Those big flamethrowers of hers would have been cumbersome in there anyway. My stuff was a little more compact, so it wasn't as big of a deal.

Crackshot and Hedgehog climbed down the side of the base and landed next to us, then stretched. "What are our orders?" Hedgehog asked.

"You'll be going with Gom and Princess, Crackshot, you're with me and Knight. We'll be taking the east, you'll be going west. Our job is to clear out the aliens, fuck em up as you see them, keep the soldiers safe if you can."

"Don't take any needless risks," Gomorrah said. "The cleaner this job is, the better. The soldiers should know what they're doing. They won't need that much help with weaker models, but they might rely on us for anything bigger, or else they'll have to call in a strike."

"Do we have strike capabilities?" Hedgehog asked.

"Mortars only," Gomorrah said. "They're relatively accurate, but I wouldn't want to rely on them in the city."

I glanced back. There were troops hopping out of APCs by the dozen, with sergeants shouting for order already. Young men and women were doing last-minute gear checks, switching out mags, praying. Doing the kind of shit you'd expect people to want to do a minute before getting into a fight.

"We don't have specific positions or anything," I said. "So we can wander a bit. Gom, are you bringing the Fury?"

"I will," Gomorrah said. "Princess, Hedgehog, feel free to ride with me."

"Your car is a two-seater," Princess pointed out.

Gomorrah looked at her. "The roof."

"I, uh, suddenly feel even less secure about Princess' safety," Knight said.

"Gomorrah, Princess looks clean enough, I'm sure she won't track mud into your car, you can at least let her sit in with you," I said.

"I suppose she can't be messier than you," Gomorrah said.

"Uh, what about me?" Hedgehog asked.

I stared at him. "Hang on?"

With that decided, I called over my mech. I didn't intend to ride in it, not when most of the fighting was probably gonna be done on foot, but having big guns at our beck and call could only be a good thing, plus the mech had a few spots that I could grab onto while it moved.

"Okay. Keep your coms opened, and shout if anything goes wrong. The faster we know about trouble the faster we can blow it up."

With that, we split. I showed Knight where she could grab onto the front leg of the mech (which made for a surprisingly smooth ride, if one that left us exposed) and Crackshot was quick to scamper onto the Mecha's back where he hung on while trying to get his gun pointed forwards.

The soldiers started to spread out, and I received an update on the tactical map in the corner of my vision. We were going to spread out, west to east on this side, then start northwards towards the far end of the city. The tanks and armoured battalion were already pushing ahead.

"So," I asked as I popped a private channel between myself and Knight. "What's up with your sister?"

"Oh... I thought you'd at least give me a few hours before opening up with that," she said.

***